A happy half term.

It may sound silly to say, but I really have found it harder than I would have thought having Amelia at full time school since September. It makes time go so much quicker, with very little time for family fun. I really miss her – I miss crafts, educational projects and daytrips out which I took for granted before.

But it was half term last week – the perfect chance to fit in lots of fun 🙂 I made a timetable – I drew it, put the days and put 2 activities each day, with lunch I between. In the morning it was a going out activity generally, and in the afternoon was something just for Amelia while Rosie napped. Some of the things we did were:

– we made a den.
– bake a pie for tea.
– lots and lots of drawing and colouring.
– reading books.
– I brought the mattress downstairs, put cushions around it and they had a trampoline for the day.
– we went to McDonald’s.
– we went to a ‘secret cafe’ (BHS!) in town after getting Rosie some new shoes. Amelia had £3 to spend and chose some hair clips – she offered me the money for Rosie’s shoes though 🙂
– we visited the library.
– we went for a walk.
– we watched a film.
– swimming.
– we went to visit friends.

We also (this was not on my list!) went to the circus, me, Amelia and my Mum. It was really good -we saw planet circus, which was stunts, including a motorbike kind from britains got talent – although we didn’t know that at the time! I really enjoyed it, and so did Amelia. Thank you Mum 🙂

We had a lot of fun this half term. I feel like we did a lot,many that’s remembering that I was sick 1.5 days and worked 1.5 days. We fitted a lot in 🙂

And something sweet (and funny) – we did the food shop one day, and Amelia really wanted to use her ‘pennies’ to buy the cereals – I said t save it, and she replied ‘but Mum, I only want to waste my money so that you don’t have to waste yours.’ I thought it was sweet and very thoughtful, bless her. And no, I didn’t let her pay for the cereals! She did lend me £1 for the trolley though 🙂

I love my girls. When they are grown, these are the times I will miss more than any others.

Xxx

The girl in the photograph by Kate Riordan

I haven’t read a book for a while. Mostly because I’ve been struggling (again!) with work…nothing major, just really busy and using a lot of spare time catching up, unpaid. It’s annoying but if I don’t it’s not me that loses out, it’s my lovely service users and their families. So I have to do it, or I can’t live with myself. Even then I’m not getting everything done. But yeah, it means that the time I do have I’m tired, stressed or just can’t be bothered to read.

This book is one I bought for my kindle a while ago but hadn’t read. Things did settle down this week, and I finally felt ready to get immersed in a good story again. I chose this one as it has been sitting patiently for so long 🙂

It is a book of the kind I love: anything with an old manor house I tend to love for some reason! It’s set in two times. The basic story is that a girl called Alice gets herself pregnant in London by a married man. She is sent to an old manor house to have the baby, with the plan that it will then be adopted later. While at the manor house, she becomes a fascinated by Elizabeth and her husband Edward and their lives from a previous time.

I did enjoy this book, but I have to admit that I don’t think it’s one that grabbed me like others have. I think that the main character (Alice) never really seemed to grab me, so I didn’t walk in her shoes much. I do tend to love the ‘past’ story more though, and it was the same in this case – I loved the story of Elizabeth and I did really relate to her.

I would recommend this book, and I would read it again, but it’s also not my favourite in this genre (I love The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield the most).

3.5 stars.

Xxx

Meal planning Monday…

I don’t join in with meal planning often, simply because there are weeks when I just don’t have the energy to try to plan ahead, and when I plan I end up relying on the same few recipes each week. But this week I don’t have a huge amount left in the fridge or freezer and so I decided that making a meal plan would help me to use everything I have (I do hate throwing anything away).

To help to inspire me I got my recipe books out, and found a few recipes to mix the week up a bit – nothing over fussy or complicated, but good home cooked food.

Monday: veggie sweet and sour stir fry with rice noodles (I’ve already made this for both my lunch and tea tomorrow – I’m at work and so hate to have to cook when I get home at 6, with kids to get in bed too).

Tuesday: the last of the veggies (carrots, baby sweetcorn, sweet potato cubes and steamed parsnips with meat of some kind – I have to buy something).

Wednesday – fish, wedges and mushy peas.

Thursday – hoisin chicken wraps ( from the good food store cupboard recipes) with salad.

Friday – spicy chicken and bacon pasties ( from the good food chicken recipes) with – well, I haven’t decided what with yet!

Saturday – beef salad with wholemeal pitta breads.

Sunday – mustard pork chops (from nigella express) with mustard mash and veg.

Xxx

Snow….

I love snow. I say I hate it, but really I love it. I don’t like being out in the snow, and I am paranoid about slipping over. But I love watching the snow falling – it’s just a little bit magical -just the slowness of the way it falls, and the way it swirls in the wind. I could watch snow all day.

I think it helps that we don’t have it often. For me, snow means days at home, the fire on, films, and red noses when we do venture outside.

My girls love snow too it turns out (what child doesn’t?) Amelia has been really excited about it – she likes touching it, and enjoyed throwing snowballs the other day with Craig. Rosie is like me – she loves watching it fall, and stands at the window watching and laughing at it. She isn’t so keen on being out in it, but she is saying ‘snow’ and is enjoying it.

I shouldn’t say it, but I really would like to wake up in the morning to thick snow, meaning snowmen, snowballs and hot chocolate 🙂 I want more than a sprinkle – although I may live to regret saying that 🙂

Xxxx